Germany drafts 9 bln euro defence savings plan
BERLIN, July 7 (Reuters) - German defence ministry experts have drawn up a list of potential savings in weapons and equipment worth more than 9.3 billion euros in the long-term.
The defence ministry said the savings proposals, details of which emerged in German media on Wednesday, were merely the basis for ongoing discussions and not final. Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has been unusually vocal with his calls for budget consolidation in Germay, saying the military budgets would not be immune to cuts even though some of his predecessors had resisted cutbacks.
"The defence minister reserves the right to change or supplement these drafts," the ministry said in a statement after the reports surfaced.
German daily Bild said the number of planned A400M military transport aircraft would be reduced and 15 Transall transport planes taken out of service immediately. Defence industry officials told Reuters that Germany has been in negotiations to cut its order for 60 aircraft by seven plans to 53. The planes cost about 100 million euros each and Germany could save approximately 750 million euros, they said.....
Among the other proposals put forward, Germany would buy only 80 NH-90 helicopters instead of the planned 122 and halve the number of new Tiger attack helicopters to 40.
Bild and business daily Handelsblatt said they also included buying 37 fewer Eurofighter combat jets than previously planned. Moreover, the plan recommended Guttenberg reduce the number of Tornados in the air force to 85 from 185 as soon as possible.
Guttenberg, the most popular minister in Merkel's cabinet, has emerged as a leading candidate for higher office in the last year thanks to his crusades in defence of taxpayers. The reports follows discussions about reducing the size of Germany's armed forces as part of a drive to consolidate the federal budget by 80 billion euros over the next four years.
Robert Hochbaum, a member of the Bundestag lower house of parliament's defence policy committee for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said future cuts to military spending were likely to reach billions of euros. "We can't make cuts to social welfare budgets and then ignore defence," he said. "There will be drastic cuts." Nevertheless, care had to be taken to ensure that the measures did not endanger the armed forces' ability to carry out its duties at home and abroad, Hochbaum added.
The 23-page document advised placing no orders for EADS's Talarion UAV and instead ordering Saateg AA Male drones.
The German navy should take eight frigates, 10 speedboats and 21 Sea King helicopters out of service in the medium to longer-term and order only three instead of four new class 125 frigates, the savings plan recommended.
The U.S.-European MEADS missile development program would not be affected, it added.